There is no global standard for safe
water and most countries have their
own specific national standards.
for public consumption despite promises and requests by
civil society.
The sad reality is that when the DWS lost momentum
on the Blue Drop and Green Drop programmes, the
municipalities also lost interest and went downhill. This is
clear from Table 1, where total Blue Drop scores showed
a steady improvement over four years, from 25 to a high
total of 98 in 2012, and now dropped dramatically to 44 in
2014. The national Blue Drop score went down as well.
Results for 2015 and 2016 are still not published.
Water testing by civil society
The vacuum created by a DWS not reporting on drinking-
water quality, led to recent efforts by civil society
organisations to step in and test municipal water and then
release such information to the public. These efforts are
praiseworthy, but fall short of the work that the national
water services regulator is supposed to do. In most
cases, it is an annual once-off sample testing, while the
proper Blue Drop accreditation would call for a rigorous
daily monitoring process as well as reporting on several
other key indicators (as explained above). So, at best,
these efforts can tell the public that on a certain day the
water was safe in a town, but for the rest of the year, it is
anyone’s guess.
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